The Popovers were going to move back to the attic and Mrs. Popover was glad of it.
'It is not good for the children to live downstairs,' she said in private to Mr. Popover. 'See how Loo-Loo lost his head. That can't be good for any child. And Velvetina has asked over and over again for a new dress, instead of being satisfied with her pretty pink velveteen, as she should. It is all because she has seen Ellen's dresses and wants a new one like hers.'
'When do we move? Have you heard?' asked Mr. Popover.
He liked it downstairs and would have been glad to stay. But of course he did not want to do anything that was not good for his children.
'We will move to-morrow,' answered Mrs. Popover. 'I heard Aunt Amelia tell Ellen so.'
And I think the reason we are moving is because Ellen is going home.'
At this both the Popovers looked sober, for they had grown fond of Aunt Amelia's little visitor.
'We knew she had to go home sometime said Mrs. Popover sensibly, after a moment's thought, 'and I believe the children are better off upstairs.'
Mr. Popover did not answer.
He as thinking to himself, 'Perhaps it isn't true a all. Perhaps Ellen isn't going home.'
But it was true. Not only was Ellen going home, but Aunt Amelia was going with her.
'Before I go away I mean to clean the attic,' said Aunt Amelia, 'and we will move the Popovers up there, too, until Ellen comes again.'
So the next morning, bright and early, Aunt Amelia and Ellen and Caroline went up to the attic with brooms and pails and brushes and mops. It was autumn now, and brisk little breezes went scurrying about the long low room, stirring the summer dust that lay in corners here and there.
'Caroline will scrub the floor,' said Aunt Amelia, looking thoughtfully about the room, 'while you and I, Ellen, go down and empty the Doll House so that it can be moved.'
You may be sure if Aunt Amelia had anything to do with the moving of the Doll House, it would be done in the very best way. The moment Mrs. Popover saw Aunt Amelia come into the playroom, with Ellen behind her dragging a clothes basket at her heels, she knew that she need worry no longer about the moving of her furniture. This time there would be no tipping and tilting of the Doll House with furniture and dishes tumbling and crashing about inside.
'Velvetina's bed is broken,' said Ellen, peering into the Doll House. 'I think she is growing too heavy for this little bed.'
'I can mend it with glue,' answered Aunt Amelia. 'Put it on the table in my room and I will mend it by and by. Now help me pack this basket.'
Into the clothes basket went the furniture‚ chairs and tables and beds, Loo-Loo's cradle, the bookcase, the piano, and Mrs. Popover's sewing-machine with the little wheel that would really turn round and round. The sewing-machine was new. Aunt Amelia had brought it to Ellen the day she had fallen asleep in the preserve closet with her jar of cherry jam. Next came the pictures off the walls, the ornaments, and the dishes. And, last of all, the Popovers themselves were placed on top of the basket, quite as comfortable as any family may expect to be on Moving Day.
Ellen took one handle of the basket and Aunt Amelia the other, and very carefully they carried it up the attic stairs. Caroline, who had finished her scrubbing, followed with the Doll House, empty and light, in her arms.
Then Caroline wiped out the inside of the Doll House and Aunt Amelia and Ellen shook the rugs and dusted the furniture well. Finally they sat down on the floor before the Little House and set it all in order, as neat and spick and span as anybody's house could be.
'Now, Ellen, you put the Popovers in and finish the House,' said Aunt Amelia, 'while I open and air these trunks and boxes.'
Aunt Amelia and Caroline worked together. They shook out winter clothes that had lain in the trunks all summer long, and they folded summer clothing and packed it carefully away.
At last their work was finished. The attic was clean from one end to the other. It smelled sweet and soapy, a smell the Popovers liked because it meant spring and fall house-cleaning to their four little noses.
Ellen had finished her work too. She had arranged the Popovers nicely in their own Little House. Mr. Popover stood before the bookcase, studying his books. Mrs. Popover was busy with her saucepans beside the kitchen stove. Velvetina was looking out of the window, while Baby Popover, as usual, lay smiling in his little wooden cradle.
Now Ellen had to bid the Popovers good-bye for she was going home the very next morning and probably would not see them again for a long, long time. She kissed them all round, she hugged them close, she whispered a tender goodbye.
Then down the stairs went Aunt Amelia and Ellen and Caroline, with their brooms and pails and brushes and mops, and left the Popovers alone in the attic.
Alone? Oh, no!
For no sooner had the sound of footsteps died away on the stairs than there came a familiar scratch, scratch, scratching in the wall and out stepped Peanut, come to spend the evening, and as happy as a king to have the Popovers safely at home once more.
How they all talked! How their little tongues flew! They had no fear now of being disturbed by Uncle Henry flapping down the hall, by wicked little Blinky ready to pounce upon them with his sharp teeth and still sharper claws.
They spoke again of the clean and soapy smell in the attic. They sniffed the odor of the furnace that had been started that very day. Mr. Popover even warmed his toes against the chimney, as they all did every year in bitter winter weather. Tonight Mr. Popover toasted his toes only for old times' sake, for the attic was comfortable, if not a little too warm.
Then they talked over the summer. They talked of Ellen and Blinky and Jack-in-the-Box. They spoke of the rude clothes-pins and Mr. Popover wished he would never see them again. They spoke of Aunt Mary Jane and hoped she would not come visiting Aunt Amelia for a long, long time.
'If she does, I shall scratch in the wall the very first night,' promised Peanut with an earnest quiver of his whiskers.
Then the Popovers told Peanut over again the story of their night out under the apple tree and all about the fairies, how they had looked and what they had said and done. Mrs. Popover made Velvetina stand out on the attic floor and dance for Peanut all she could remember of the fairy dance.
Mr. Popover next told of his call upon Doctor Frog, and of how his legs had trembled as he had climbed up and down the honeysuckle vine.
'Doctor Frog said to me that Mrs. Popover's Floating Island was the best dessert he had ever eaten,' added Mr. Popover proudly. 'He said it was much better than mud pudding, which was what his wife usually gave him for tea.'
Peanut told how lonely he had been, how he had tried to make friends with a fat spider in the attic and with a field mouse who lived in the garden out by the lilac bush. But he had not met anyone whom he liked so well as the Popovers, which made the Popovers feel very comfortable and happy indeed.
It was now bedtime. Peanut said goodnight and slipped away.
And then, and not until then, Velvetina discovered that her bed was not in its usual place beside her mother and father's big gilt bed.
'Don't you remember the leg was broken?' said Mrs. Popover. 'Aunt Amelia is going to mend it for you. She will bring it up to us tomorrow, no doubt. You may sleep at the foot of our bed tonight, Velvetina. That is what you may do'
But Velvetina was tired and excited, both at coming home and at seeing Peanut again. She was so tired that she didn't act like herself.
'I won't go to bed at all,' cried Velvetina, 'unless I can sleep in my own bed. I won't go to bed at all!'
'What will you do, then?' asked Mr. Popover impatiently. 'Do you mean to sit up all night?'
'Yes!' answered Velvetina, stamping her foot, 'I mean to sit up all night.'
Mrs. Popover knew this was nonsense. Not while she was Velvetina's mother would Velvetina sit up all night. She was wondering what to say or do next when up the attic stairs walked Aunt Amelia, with Velvetina's little bed, nicely mended, in her hand.
Aunt Amelia snapped on the light. She set the little bed in the bedroom close beside Mr. and Mrs. Popover's big gilt bed. Then she picked up Velvetina and tucked her in the bed, as snug as snug could be.
Aunt Amelia stood looking in at the Little Doll House. She looked at it for a long, long time.
At last Aunt Amelia spoke.
'Good-night, little Popovers,' said Aunt Amelia in a very gentle voice.
And then, to the amazement and horror of Mr. and Mrs. Popover, they heard Velvetina, tired and sleepy, quite forgetting for the moment that she was only a doll, they heard Velvetina speak right out loud!
'Good-night,' answered Velvetina in a drowsy little voice. 'Good-night.
Mr. and Mrs. Popover simply didn't know what to do. Such a thing had never happened in their family before. So, very sensibly, they did nothing at all.
As for Aunt Amelia, of course she heard the little voice, but she thought it was a creaking board. It is true that Velvetina's voice was a trifle fine and shrill.
'What creaky old boards!' said Aunt Amelia. 'I suppose I could have a carpenter nail them fast. But I rather like squeaking boards in an attic, I think.'
Although it had turned out so well, Mrs. Popover felt worried.
' I must speak firmly to Velvetina the moment Aunt Amelia goes downstairs,' thought she. But by that time poor little Velvetina was fast asleep.
The morning will do,' decided Mrs. Popover. But in the morning they were all so busy looking round the attic that nothing was ever said to Velvetina at all.
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Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Back In The Attic
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